1 8 2 In the United States vi 



bass. Curious how difficult it is to find new names 

 for bird, or beast, or fish. In America I shoot 

 robins and find them thrushes ; elk, and I find them 

 wapiti ; whilst here in England itself we shoot Latin 

 partridges and pheasants, and catch, when we can, 

 Latin salmon and Latin, or even possibly Greek, 

 trout.' — The Doctor. 



This extremely short and disconnected account 

 of his experiences in America may be concluded 

 with the following characteristic letter ' On the 

 Subject of Prairie Chickens out West,' which was 

 written many years after his last visit to the States 

 and the Territories. 



' My Dear Sir, — I have no doubt that you are 

 much better posted up in the subject of prairie 

 chickens than I am ; I did very little in the scatter- 

 gun way during my visit to the States and 

 Territories, still I feel inclined to make a fight 

 for my fancy that they increase with the increase 

 of civilisation, which not only kills down the 

 skunks and the coyote, who lap up their eggs and 

 young (just as those canting, scheimheitigkeit 

 humbugs, the Scotch collies, do with the young 

 and the eggs of the grouse), but also prevents the 

 burning of the grass by the " Injuns." 



' You may — ah ! how I wish I could — ride a 

 hundred miles out West and never see a single 

 " prairie chicken " ; but up North and down East 

 you may " gun " them out of the car-windows as 

 they rise from the rich farm-lands so thickly as to 



